Neil Walters said:
The Home Secretary's email address is:
[email protected]
I have written a polite note to her asking her to get involved and raise the profile of Diabetes care (good and bad) and that joining this forum would be a fine start.
One or two of you might consider doing something similar.
Home Secretary
I was interested to hear that you have recently been diagnosed with Diabetes.
There is a forum for fellow diabetes sufferers, their friends and families which provides a great support network to those who are recently diagnosed and those who have suffered from the condition for many years. You will find that there are a broad variety of experiences of the level of quality in diabetes care within in the UK, much of it very good, but sadly like with many things, lots of it very poor too.
The forum can be found at
www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-forum/
The diabetic community very much need a voice and to have a prominent and well respected politician such as yourself a fellow sufferer presents an opportunity to improve that voice to fight for better diabetes care for all, but particularly for those who do not have the means to fund their care themselves.
A simple example is the availability of test strips on prescription - these strips are vital in maintaining close control of blood sugar levels but are no longer freely available. I am one of the lucky ones and I receive about half of the number that I need on prescription and fund the remainder myself which costs me in the order of £100pcm - I am fortunate that I am well paid so I am able to fund this and am entirely happy that I should do so.
However, many many fellow sufferers are not as fortunate as myself or you and they are unable to afford such expense. This leads to reduced monitoring and the consequence of poorer blood sugar control. In turn this will almost certainly lead to diabetic related complications for some of these patients in due course.
The policy being followed to make test strips unavailable should be changed as it is short sighted and above all else is prejudicial to their rights as equal citizens - why should I because I am well paid, be able to have access to test strips when others who are less fortunate are not? - it is simply inequitable and needs to be changed.
Please join our forum and engage with people who need your help to raise the profile of their condition in a more positive way than has been the case hitherto.
Yours sincerely